I read a story last week: Return of the Guardian-King (Legends of the Guardian-King, Book 4)
. Fourth and final of a vividly epic fantasy series written by a woman who knows my world, my type, and my God. Her name is Karen Hancock, and her stories have invaded my imagination permanently.
It is a book about temptation, I told a friend. Resisting in the slow way, wearied by the persistence, common days, small things. And massive temptations: to betray all you have believed in, to denounce the promises of God for the power of ruling kingdoms, to trade love in the good God and His simple gifts to the extravagant suit of the alluring devil. But the large and the small are the same.
The characters are strong against deception and temptation when they have been faithful in the daily denying of self. To live for others, in kindness and patience, prepares each person against bitterness and despair. Immersion in the truth and promises of God is comfort and hope. Even if their prayer is a single cry for help from God, bad things trun to good when people talk to their God.
The story isn’t about what is happening on the outside as much as it is about whether the characters are trusting God, whether they know with all their might that He loves them and that His plans for them are good. When they are rebelling against him, they are miserable. So are those around them. So am I.
Kiriath is in the hands of the jealous and vengeful brother Gillard, possessed by a demon rhu’ema. Already they treat and ally with the archenemy, Belthe’adi, Abramm had warned them of. Abramm is known to be dead. But Abramm is also walking the mountains, chafing under the waiting in a snowed-in monastery. Maddie is back at her childhood home, a palatial life she never embraced, and her newest royal duty is to marry some rich aristocrat who can offer troops to defend the last stand of her homeland. But her dreams linked with her beloved’s are back, and something tugs hope alive in her that maybe Abramm survived after all.
Shapeshifters, dragons, and the critical people who are supposed to be his friends plague Abramm on his Odyssey-like journey back to his wife and sons. Trap and Carissa mirror Abramm’s struggle with pride and longing but in a quiet domestic setting. Detours take the exiled king and longed-for husband to places of faith and doubt he never would have imagined – and sometimes wishes he had never asked for.
Every character learns the power of friends: locking them against temptation, praying for their dearest concerns, teaching and challenging with the truth, dividing the attacks of dragons, delivering messages, watching with unbiased eyes, guarding against betrayal. Again Abramm learns that it is not his strength that conquers, and that God has not gifted him with leadership and military prowess to fight God’s battles for Him. He is but a vessel.
Maddie meets a charming man who is attractive in all the ways Abramm never was. Tirus wants her, wants to help her. He understands her and shows her off, showers her with gifts and protects her from scorn. How long can she wait for her husband whom even her dearest friends still believe is dead? Will she believe the light-born visions and promises from God, or the technological, repeatable sight from the stone sent to her by her suitor? Will she change her mind about regal living and the purpose of marriage? The things that stood in Maddie’s way when she wanted to marry Abramm, and the undeniable need they had for each other – will she forget those?
When things go from bad to worse, whose job is it to protect the ones they love? At what cost will they buy safety and love? Will the armies of the Moon, and the powers of the air – dragons winging terror across the skies – will they succeed in doing their worst, in taking everything from those faithful to God? Or will they be utterly defeated? If they cannot be defeated, what is the point in fighting and sacrificing?
And when God’s people fail, bitterly weak, The Return of the Guardian King resounds with display of God’s mercy. God knew we were weak when He chose us. He knew we would fail when He sent His Son to suffer for those sins. And a single prayer, sometimes the end of God’s longsuffering chase, brings grace empowering His servants to do the right thing. He cannot deny Himself. His promises will be true, however faithless we are.
To God be all glory.
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